ON DEPUTY SPEAKER’S STATEMENT THAT NIGERIANS IN DIASPORA HAVE NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT INSECURITY AND THE REFUGEES SITUATION IN NIGERIA – HOW DID SUCH KIND OF LAWMAKERS GET ELECTED IN THE FIRST PLACE?
March 16, 2021 | News
Every time that I consider the existing structure, character, often disposition of, and attitude towards statutory functions/duties exhibited by - Nigerian lawmakers, which often times paint a picture of legislators that clearly do not fully understand their roles, the demands of their positions and the seriousness this portends in nation-building; my heart simply aches.
ON DEPUTY SPEAKER’S STATEMENT THAT NIGERIANS IN DIASPORA HAVE NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT INSECURITY AND THE REFUGEES SITUATION IN NIGERIA – HOW DID SUCH KIND OF LAWMAKERS GET ELECTED IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Every time that I consider the existing structure, character, often disposition of, and attitude towards statutory functions/duties exhibited by - Nigerian lawmakers, which often times paint a picture of legislators that clearly do not fully understand their roles, the demands of their positions and the seriousness this portends in nation-building; my heart simply aches. And I believe a lot of well-meaning Nigerians feel the same way too about our Nigerian lawmakers.
Nigerians were again reminded of this unfortunate fact of the sort of lawmakers we have at the National Assembly, when a viral video online showed how the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase, shamefully argued that Nigerians living abroad practically do not have the right to complain, or petition about the insecurity situation in the country, particularly the pathetic state of Nigerian refugees living in refugee camps in their own country.
We are all aware that most of the Nigerians residing in Europe and North America are there not necessarily because they really like those places with its extreme cold weather conditions and racism issues, but basically because of the hardships and lack of opportunities to make it here in Nigeria. Nobody wants to be a second-hand citizen in another man’s land. However, that does not mean, or make them less of Nigerians who cannot complain or have a say about the things going wrong in their country Nigeria. To now have a supposed lawmaker say that they don’t have that right to complain and submit petitions on issues affecting their people in Nigeria, is simply ridiculous. It makes one wonder how on earth did such kind of politician get elected to be a lawmaker, and then a Deputy Speaker in the first place? Come to think of it, is it appropriate for Nigerian citizens living in Nigeria to be living in refugee camps at all? Is it not shameful to us as a people, as a nation, and to our political leaders, that in this 21st century, we have thousands of our citizens living as refugees for years in their own country, and nothing is being done about resettling them back to their ancestral lands where they were driven away by Fulani herdsmen? To now have the Deputy Speaker come out boldly during plenary session to say such rubbish, makes it even worse. The House of Representatives do not need people who are just degree certificate carriers. But they need well-informed Nigerians as lawmakers with the good frame of mind, and not people who still live in the stone age era. Do the members of the House of Representative not have well-informed people to appoint as Principal Officers of the Chamber? And not the likes of Ahmed Idris Wase?
The said statement by Wase has already generated a lot of reactions amongst Nigerians, most of whom have expressed their disgust and anger towards such disposition of the Deputy Speaker towards Nigerians in the diaspora. According to a YouTuber, Keeping It Real With Adeola, who is a Nigerian resident in New York, America, explained the whole fiasco as contained in the said video: “So, an Association of Tiv people in America, known as the Mutual Union of Tiv in America (MUTA), decided to raise awareness to the condition of Tiv people who have been displaced by herdsmen, and out of their lands, and now residing in Refugee camps, and they’ve been there now for years. There has been no intervention for them, no attempt by the government to help them get their lands back, so that they can go back to farming and taking care of themselves. These people are at refugee camps. This Association in America, who are relatives to the refugees, submitted a petition on their behalf, to the National Assembly, and the Deputy Speaker; Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase, was blabbing that: “if they are in America, do they really know exactly what is going on?... If this petition is coming from those who are within the country, I believe it has a good chance of standing. But if they are people living in America, and then coming to lodge a complaint here….”
The petition was presented by Hon. Mark Terseer Gbillah, who tried to tell the Deputy Speaker that: “some of them are not Residents in America, but some of them are there studying. But it is their Union that is making this complaint… they are all Nigerian citizens…” So, what if they are Residents in American as citizens, and what if they have dual citizenship in America? Why should that even matter? So, is the Deputy Speaker saying that these people no longer have a say in the affairs of their own country, just because they live abroad? How did this man become the Deputy Speaker in this age of 2021? He has no shame! I thought the man was educated. It is hard enough whenever we come home from the abroad, the Airport looks like a nightmare. Common toilet paper sometimes you don’t have inside your airport... Common working Air Conditioners you refuse to put inside your airport. We’ve been shouting all these years. But those are mundane things. We are not even allowed to vote because we live abroad. Other countries arrange for their citizens abroad, whether they have dual citizenship or not; they arrange for them to partake in their countries’ electoral process.
“I cannot blame these Nigerian lawmakers. They already know that if Nigerians abroad are allowed to vote, not just for the President, but for the lawmakers, many of them will not be seating at the Chambers today. They will not be there! Now, they are saying that we cannot even submit a petition. A petition, which is just to remind them to do their job. They just don’t want to be responsible to the people at all. But when it comes to collecting money from these Nigerians living abroad, you have no problem with that. In 2019 alone, Nigerians in diaspora sent back home $17.5 billion (that is 6.6 Trillion Naira). Nigeria is the only country that I know that gladly takes from those in the diaspora, but we have no say in how our country is being run. How much is the Nigerian budget? 10.59 Trillion Naira for 2020. Do you see how much we are contributing to the Nigerian economy? And many of us are suffering in that abroad. Is it just the Deputy Speaker that is like this? Or do we think they all have this kind of mentality/mindset? In fact, I am ashamed for the Deputy Speaker, if he is not ashamed for himself. He should know that every Nigerian have the right to say something at the Chambers, you’re supposed to be representing us, not to be telling us, particularly the member that presented the said petition, to keep quiet. Abike Dabiri needs to look at this matter because you come to abroad to tell us to come back home and that everything is rosy, and everything is fine. How can everything be fine with such lawmakers?
“I hope that the Federal Government is aware about what these men are doing at the Chambers, because they did not even allow the man to submit the petition. They didn’t even look at the petition at all. They told him to be guided, and they ordered him to sit down…. The least you could have done was to listen. You’re there to represent Nigerians, whether at home or abroad. And the moment that one Nigerian does well abroad, this same people will start claiming him or her as a Nigerian. You have no shame! We’ve been to the refugee camp in question, I don’t live in Nigeria, but myself and some members of Cawa foundation, we went there to where these refugees are camping, just to see the conditions they are living in. These were people that were well-to-do. These were people that had their farms. They were doing well on their own, until the herdsmen came and drove them away from their lands. The sad thing is that many of these lawmakers have never been to these refugee camps. They don’t even know what this people are going through. They’ve never been there. Just common drive to Benue, drive to the Tiv lands and to the refugee camps and go and see these people; they will not do that. But you know the truth is, they have not listened to Nigerians living in Nigeria, so why should we expect them to listen to those living abroad?”
The Deputy Speaker in question, is a clear case of the sort of political leaders in Nigeria, and we wonder why Nigeria is always heading backwards when other nations are moving forward. When will Nigerian government take role of leadership? Last year, the British Parliament set aside a date to listen to petitions from Nigerians during the ENDSARS protests, and here we have a Deputy Speaker saying their rights is void because of their dual Citizenship. It is like medical doctors working in a foreign hospital where a Nigerian politician is seeking medical attention say: "I am not convinced that a politician living in Nigeria should be requesting medical care in my country"
Even the lawmaker reading out the petition was also confused. This is just the case of a blind leading the blind. Don’t they know that Nigerians in diaspora have a stake in their country of origin? They support projects, families etc., back home. For there to be someone in the diaspora, there has to be people left in that person’s home country, who they have every right to be concerned about their welfare and what happens to them. Which is why they considered it abnormal that their people are still living in refugee camps. I mean, how can a Nigerian be living in Nigeria as a refugee?
Truth be told, the number of incompetent and “degree certificate carriers” representing our people is alarming! This is really unfair. The Deputy Speaker is a disgrace to his constituency, state and the county. Sadly, his likes are numerous in the National Assembly, as it is evidently confirmed by the silence of those in attendance when this issue was raised in the floor. This is what you get when mediocre sycophants rule. When a man is not a leader, it comes in this way - from the point of the supposed Deputy Speaker intercepting the House of Representatives member not to complete his statement, it is enough to say that it is a very BIG SHAME! The height of insanity from such supposed lawmakers. I condemn the Deputy Speaker’s position, and I feel he's serving an underlined interest to suppress a topic of national discuss, as he doesn't know when to draw the line between sectoral and national interests. He has simply demonstrated high level of incompetence. To me, the House must initiate procedures for his removal as Deputy Speaker, to avoid further "INTERNATIONAL" embarrassment.
Zik Gbemre.
March 17, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
Every time that I consider the existing structure, character, often disposition of, and attitude towards statutory functions/duties exhibited by - Nigerian lawmakers, which often times paint a picture of legislators that clearly do not fully understand their roles, the demands of their positions and the seriousness this portends in nation-building; my heart simply aches. And I believe a lot of well-meaning Nigerians feel the same way too about our Nigerian lawmakers.
Nigerians were again reminded of this unfortunate fact of the sort of lawmakers we have at the National Assembly, when a viral video online showed how the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase, shamefully argued that Nigerians living abroad practically do not have the right to complain, or petition about the insecurity situation in the country, particularly the pathetic state of Nigerian refugees living in refugee camps in their own country.
We are all aware that most of the Nigerians residing in Europe and North America are there not necessarily because they really like those places with its extreme cold weather conditions and racism issues, but basically because of the hardships and lack of opportunities to make it here in Nigeria. Nobody wants to be a second-hand citizen in another man’s land. However, that does not mean, or make them less of Nigerians who cannot complain or have a say about the things going wrong in their country Nigeria. To now have a supposed lawmaker say that they don’t have that right to complain and submit petitions on issues affecting their people in Nigeria, is simply ridiculous. It makes one wonder how on earth did such kind of politician get elected to be a lawmaker, and then a Deputy Speaker in the first place? Come to think of it, is it appropriate for Nigerian citizens living in Nigeria to be living in refugee camps at all? Is it not shameful to us as a people, as a nation, and to our political leaders, that in this 21st century, we have thousands of our citizens living as refugees for years in their own country, and nothing is being done about resettling them back to their ancestral lands where they were driven away by Fulani herdsmen? To now have the Deputy Speaker come out boldly during plenary session to say such rubbish, makes it even worse. The House of Representatives do not need people who are just degree certificate carriers. But they need well-informed Nigerians as lawmakers with the good frame of mind, and not people who still live in the stone age era. Do the members of the House of Representative not have well-informed people to appoint as Principal Officers of the Chamber? And not the likes of Ahmed Idris Wase?
The said statement by Wase has already generated a lot of reactions amongst Nigerians, most of whom have expressed their disgust and anger towards such disposition of the Deputy Speaker towards Nigerians in the diaspora. According to a YouTuber, Keeping It Real With Adeola, who is a Nigerian resident in New York, America, explained the whole fiasco as contained in the said video: “So, an Association of Tiv people in America, known as the Mutual Union of Tiv in America (MUTA), decided to raise awareness to the condition of Tiv people who have been displaced by herdsmen, and out of their lands, and now residing in Refugee camps, and they’ve been there now for years. There has been no intervention for them, no attempt by the government to help them get their lands back, so that they can go back to farming and taking care of themselves. These people are at refugee camps. This Association in America, who are relatives to the refugees, submitted a petition on their behalf, to the National Assembly, and the Deputy Speaker; Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase, was blabbing that: “if they are in America, do they really know exactly what is going on?... If this petition is coming from those who are within the country, I believe it has a good chance of standing. But if they are people living in America, and then coming to lodge a complaint here….”
The petition was presented by Hon. Mark Terseer Gbillah, who tried to tell the Deputy Speaker that: “some of them are not Residents in America, but some of them are there studying. But it is their Union that is making this complaint… they are all Nigerian citizens…” So, what if they are Residents in American as citizens, and what if they have dual citizenship in America? Why should that even matter? So, is the Deputy Speaker saying that these people no longer have a say in the affairs of their own country, just because they live abroad? How did this man become the Deputy Speaker in this age of 2021? He has no shame! I thought the man was educated. It is hard enough whenever we come home from the abroad, the Airport looks like a nightmare. Common toilet paper sometimes you don’t have inside your airport... Common working Air Conditioners you refuse to put inside your airport. We’ve been shouting all these years. But those are mundane things. We are not even allowed to vote because we live abroad. Other countries arrange for their citizens abroad, whether they have dual citizenship or not; they arrange for them to partake in their countries’ electoral process.
“I cannot blame these Nigerian lawmakers. They already know that if Nigerians abroad are allowed to vote, not just for the President, but for the lawmakers, many of them will not be seating at the Chambers today. They will not be there! Now, they are saying that we cannot even submit a petition. A petition, which is just to remind them to do their job. They just don’t want to be responsible to the people at all. But when it comes to collecting money from these Nigerians living abroad, you have no problem with that. In 2019 alone, Nigerians in diaspora sent back home $17.5 billion (that is 6.6 Trillion Naira). Nigeria is the only country that I know that gladly takes from those in the diaspora, but we have no say in how our country is being run. How much is the Nigerian budget? 10.59 Trillion Naira for 2020. Do you see how much we are contributing to the Nigerian economy? And many of us are suffering in that abroad. Is it just the Deputy Speaker that is like this? Or do we think they all have this kind of mentality/mindset? In fact, I am ashamed for the Deputy Speaker, if he is not ashamed for himself. He should know that every Nigerian have the right to say something at the Chambers, you’re supposed to be representing us, not to be telling us, particularly the member that presented the said petition, to keep quiet. Abike Dabiri needs to look at this matter because you come to abroad to tell us to come back home and that everything is rosy, and everything is fine. How can everything be fine with such lawmakers?
“I hope that the Federal Government is aware about what these men are doing at the Chambers, because they did not even allow the man to submit the petition. They didn’t even look at the petition at all. They told him to be guided, and they ordered him to sit down…. The least you could have done was to listen. You’re there to represent Nigerians, whether at home or abroad. And the moment that one Nigerian does well abroad, this same people will start claiming him or her as a Nigerian. You have no shame! We’ve been to the refugee camp in question, I don’t live in Nigeria, but myself and some members of Cawa foundation, we went there to where these refugees are camping, just to see the conditions they are living in. These were people that were well-to-do. These were people that had their farms. They were doing well on their own, until the herdsmen came and drove them away from their lands. The sad thing is that many of these lawmakers have never been to these refugee camps. They don’t even know what this people are going through. They’ve never been there. Just common drive to Benue, drive to the Tiv lands and to the refugee camps and go and see these people; they will not do that. But you know the truth is, they have not listened to Nigerians living in Nigeria, so why should we expect them to listen to those living abroad?”
The Deputy Speaker in question, is a clear case of the sort of political leaders in Nigeria, and we wonder why Nigeria is always heading backwards when other nations are moving forward. When will Nigerian government take role of leadership? Last year, the British Parliament set aside a date to listen to petitions from Nigerians during the ENDSARS protests, and here we have a Deputy Speaker saying their rights is void because of their dual Citizenship. It is like medical doctors working in a foreign hospital where a Nigerian politician is seeking medical attention say: "I am not convinced that a politician living in Nigeria should be requesting medical care in my country"
Even the lawmaker reading out the petition was also confused. This is just the case of a blind leading the blind. Don’t they know that Nigerians in diaspora have a stake in their country of origin? They support projects, families etc., back home. For there to be someone in the diaspora, there has to be people left in that person’s home country, who they have every right to be concerned about their welfare and what happens to them. Which is why they considered it abnormal that their people are still living in refugee camps. I mean, how can a Nigerian be living in Nigeria as a refugee?
Truth be told, the number of incompetent and “degree certificate carriers” representing our people is alarming! This is really unfair. The Deputy Speaker is a disgrace to his constituency, state and the county. Sadly, his likes are numerous in the National Assembly, as it is evidently confirmed by the silence of those in attendance when this issue was raised in the floor. This is what you get when mediocre sycophants rule. When a man is not a leader, it comes in this way - from the point of the supposed Deputy Speaker intercepting the House of Representatives member not to complete his statement, it is enough to say that it is a very BIG SHAME! The height of insanity from such supposed lawmakers. I condemn the Deputy Speaker’s position, and I feel he's serving an underlined interest to suppress a topic of national discuss, as he doesn't know when to draw the line between sectoral and national interests. He has simply demonstrated high level of incompetence. To me, the House must initiate procedures for his removal as Deputy Speaker, to avoid further "INTERNATIONAL" embarrassment.
Zik Gbemre.
March 17, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes